Chapter 14. Apache HTTP Server

189

Note

If you are running the Apache HTTP Server as a secure server, you will be prompted for the secure

server's password after the machine boots, unless you generated a specific type of server key file.

For information about setting up an Apache HTTP Secure Server see the chapter titled Apache HTTP

Secure Server Configuration in the Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.

14.5. Configuration Directives in

httpd.conf

The Apache HTTP Server configuration file is

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

. The

httpd.conf

file is well commented and mostly self explanatory. Its default configuration will work for most situ 

ations, however you should become familiar some of the more important configuration options.

Warning

With the release of Apache HTTP Server 2.0, many configuration options have changed. If you need

to migrate a version 1.3 configuration file to the new format, refer to Section 14.2.

If you need to configure the Apache HTTP Server, edit

httpd.conf

and then either reload, restart,

or stop and start the

httpd

process. How to reload, stop and start the Apache HTTP Server is covered

in Section 14.4.

Before you edit

httpd.conf

, you should first copy the original file to something like

httpd.conf 

old

, for example. By creating a backup, you can recover potential mistakes made while editing the

new configuration file.

If you do make a mistake and your Web server does not work correctly, first review what you have

recently edited in

httpd.conf

. Make sure there are no typos.

Next look in the Web server's error log (

/var/log/httpd/error_log

). The error log may not be

easy to interpret, depending on your level of experience. If you have just experienced a problem,

however, the last entries in the error log should provide information about what happened.

The next sections provide short descriptions of the directives included in

httpd.conf

. These

descriptions are not exhaustive. If you need more information, refer to the Apache documentation

provided in HTML format at http://localhoast/manual/ or the Apache group documentation at

http://httpd.apache.org/docs 2.0/.

For more information about

mod_ssl

directives, refer to the documentation included in HTML

format at http://localhost/mod/mod_ssl.html or the Apache group

mod_ssl

documentation at

http://httpd.apache.org/docs 2.0/mod/mod_ssl.html.

14.5.1.

ServerRoot

The

ServerRoot

is the top level directory which contains the server's files. Both your secure and

non secure servers are set to use a

ServerRoot

of

"/etc/httpd"

.

14.5.2.

LockFile

LockFile

sets the path to the lockfile used when

httpd

is compiled with either

USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT

or

USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT

.

LockFile

should be

left at its default value.